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<title>Chapter 23. Boost.MPI</title>
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<div class="chapter">
<div class="titlepage"><div>
<div><h2 class="title">
<a name="mpi"></a>Chapter 23. Boost.MPI</h2></div>
<div><div class="author"><h3 class="author">
<span class="firstname">Douglas</span> <span class="surname">Gregor</span>
</h3></div></div>
<div><div class="author"><h3 class="author">
<span class="firstname">Matthias</span> <span class="surname">Troyer</span>
</h3></div></div>
<div><p class="copyright">Copyright © 2005-2007 Douglas Gregor,
      Matthias Troyer, Trustees of Indiana University</p></div>
<div><div class="legalnotice">
<a name="mpi.legal"></a><p>
        Distributed under the Boost Software License, Version 1.0. (See accompanying
        file LICENSE_1_0.txt or copy at &lt;ulink url="http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt"&gt;
        http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt &lt;/ulink&gt;)
      </p>
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<div class="toc">
<p><b>Table of Contents</b></p>
<dl class="toc">
<dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi.html#mpi.introduction">Introduction</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/getting_started.html">Getting started</a></span></dt>
<dd><dl>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/getting_started.html#mpi.getting_started.implementation">MPI Implementation</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/getting_started.html#mpi.getting_started.config">Configure and Build</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/getting_started.html#mpi.getting_started.using">Using Boost.MPI</a></span></dt>
</dl></dd>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/tutorial.html">Tutorial</a></span></dt>
<dd><dl>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/tutorial.html#mpi.tutorial.point_to_point">Point-to-Point communication</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/tutorial.html#mpi.tutorial.collectives">Collective operations</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/tutorial.html#mpi.tutorial.user_data_types">User-defined data types</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/tutorial.html#mpi.tutorial.communicators">Communicators</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/tutorial.html#mpi.tutorial.threading">Threads</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/tutorial.html#mpi.tutorial.skeleton_and_content">Separating structure
      from content</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/tutorial.html#mpi.tutorial.performance_optimizations">Performance optimizations</a></span></dt>
</dl></dd>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/c_mapping.html">Mapping from C MPI to Boost.MPI</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/reference.html">Reference</a></span></dt>
<dd><dl>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/reference.html#doxygen.mpi_8hpp">Header &lt;boost/mpi.hpp&gt;</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/reference.html#doxygen.allocator_8hpp">Header &lt;boost/mpi/allocator.hpp&gt;</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/reference.html#doxygen.cartesian__communicator_8hpp">Header &lt;boost/mpi/cartesian_communicator.hpp&gt;</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/reference.html#doxygen.collectives_8hpp">Header &lt;boost/mpi/collectives.hpp&gt;</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/reference.html#doxygen.collectives__fwd_8hpp">Header &lt;boost/mpi/collectives_fwd.hpp&gt;</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/reference.html#doxygen.communicator_8hpp">Header &lt;boost/mpi/communicator.hpp&gt;</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/reference.html#doxygen.config_8hpp">Header &lt;boost/mpi/config.hpp&gt;</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/reference.html#doxygen.datatype_8hpp">Header &lt;boost/mpi/datatype.hpp&gt;</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/reference.html#doxygen.datatype__fwd_8hpp">Header &lt;boost/mpi/datatype_fwd.hpp&gt;</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/reference.html#doxygen.environment_8hpp">Header &lt;boost/mpi/environment.hpp&gt;</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/reference.html#doxygen.exception_8hpp">Header &lt;boost/mpi/exception.hpp&gt;</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/reference.html#doxygen.graph__communicator_8hpp">Header &lt;boost/mpi/graph_communicator.hpp&gt;</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/reference.html#doxygen.group_8hpp">Header &lt;boost/mpi/group.hpp&gt;</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/reference.html#doxygen.inplace_8hpp">Header &lt;boost/mpi/inplace.hpp&gt;</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/reference.html#doxygen.intercommunicator_8hpp">Header &lt;boost/mpi/intercommunicator.hpp&gt;</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/reference.html#doxygen.nonblocking_8hpp">Header &lt;boost/mpi/nonblocking.hpp&gt;</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/reference.html#doxygen.operations_8hpp">Header &lt;boost/mpi/operations.hpp&gt;</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/reference.html#doxygen.packed__iarchive_8hpp">Header &lt;boost/mpi/packed_iarchive.hpp&gt;</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/reference.html#doxygen.packed__oarchive_8hpp">Header &lt;boost/mpi/packed_oarchive.hpp&gt;</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/reference.html#doxygen.python_8hpp">Header &lt;boost/mpi/python.hpp&gt;</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/reference.html#doxygen.request_8hpp">Header &lt;boost/mpi/request.hpp&gt;</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/reference.html#doxygen.skeleton__and__content_8hpp">Header &lt;boost/mpi/skeleton_and_content.hpp&gt;</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/reference.html#doxygen.skeleton__and__content__fwd_8hpp">Header &lt;boost/mpi/skeleton_and_content_fwd.hpp&gt;</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/reference.html#doxygen.status_8hpp">Header &lt;boost/mpi/status.hpp&gt;</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/reference.html#doxygen.timer_8hpp">Header &lt;boost/mpi/timer.hpp&gt;</a></span></dt>
</dl></dd>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/python.html">Python Bindings</a></span></dt>
<dd><dl>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/python.html#mpi.python.quickstart">Quickstart</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/python.html#mpi.python.user_data">Transmitting User-Defined Data</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/python.html#mpi.python.collectives">Collectives</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/python.html#mpi.python.skeleton_content">Skeleton/Content Mechanism</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/python.html#mpi.python.compatibility">C++/Python MPI Compatibility</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/python.html#mpi.python.reference">Reference</a></span></dt>
</dl></dd>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/design.html">Design Philosophy</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/performance.html">Performance Evaluation</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/history.html">Revision History</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/acknowledge.html">Acknowledgments</a></span></dt>
</dl>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both">
<a name="mpi.introduction"></a><a class="link" href="mpi.html#mpi.introduction" title="Introduction">Introduction</a>
</h2></div></div></div>
<p>
      Boost.MPI is a library for message passing in high-performance parallel applications.
      A Boost.MPI program is one or more processes that can communicate either via
      sending and receiving individual messages (point-to-point communication) or
      by coordinating as a group (collective communication). Unlike communication
      in threaded environments or using a shared-memory library, Boost.MPI processes
      can be spread across many different machines, possibly with different operating
      systems and underlying architectures.
    </p>
<p>
      Boost.MPI is not a completely new parallel programming library. Rather, it
      is a C++-friendly interface to the standard Message Passing Interface (<a href="http://www-unix.mcs.anl.gov/mpi/" target="_top">MPI</a>), the most popular library
      interface for high-performance, distributed computing. MPI defines a library
      interface, available from C, Fortran, and C++, for which there are many <a href="http://www-unix.mcs.anl.gov/mpi/implementations.html" target="_top">MPI implementations</a>.
      Although there exist C++ bindings for MPI, they offer little functionality
      over the C bindings. The Boost.MPI library provides an alternative C++ interface
      to MPI that better supports modern C++ development styles, including complete
      support for user-defined data types and C++ Standard Library types, arbitrary
      function objects for collective algorithms, and the use of modern C++ library
      techniques to maintain maximal efficiency.
    </p>
<p>
      At present, Boost.MPI supports the majority of functionality in MPI 1.1. The
      thin abstractions in Boost.MPI allow one to easily combine it with calls to
      the underlying C MPI library. Boost.MPI currently supports:
    </p>
<div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-type: disc; ">
<li class="listitem">
          Communicators: Boost.MPI supports the creation, destruction, cloning, and
          splitting of MPI communicators, along with manipulation of process groups.
        </li>
<li class="listitem">
          Point-to-point communication: Boost.MPI supports point-to-point communication
          of primitive and user-defined data types with send and receive operations,
          with blocking and non-blocking interfaces.
        </li>
<li class="listitem">
          Collective communication: Boost.MPI supports collective operations such
          as <code class="computeroutput"><a class="link" href="doxygen/collectives_8hpp_1a1f25ce70bef33771218a8d47036b1ff5.html" title="Function reduce">reduce</a></code>
          and <code class="computeroutput"><a class="link" href="doxygen/collectives_8hpp_1a37b487f942bdcb918a05c31e24f25573.html" title="Function gather">gather</a></code>
          with both built-in and user-defined data types and function objects.
        </li>
<li class="listitem">
          MPI Datatypes: Boost.MPI can build MPI data types for user-defined types
          using the <a href="../../libs/serialization/doc" target="_top">Boost.Serialization</a>
          library.
        </li>
<li class="listitem">
          Separating structure from content: Boost.MPI can transfer the shape (or
          "skeleton") of complex data structures (lists, maps, etc.) and
          then separately transfer their content. This facility optimizes for cases
          where the data within a large, static data structure needs to be transmitted
          many times.
        </li>
</ul></div>
<p>
      Boost.MPI can be accessed either through its native C++ bindings, or through
      its alternative, <a class="link" href="mpi/python.html" title="Python Bindings">Python interface</a>.
    </p>
</div>
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